We love our metal here at Metal Injection… but we dig movies too! Welcome to Cinema Fix, a movie guide tailored for the metal faithful. Sit back and relax after a long week of work and/or blast beats and enjoy one of our prestigious film selections. This week's pick is:
Krampus (2015)
Quick Pitch:
An ancient goat demon terrorizes a hapless family on Christmas.
Synopsis:
Poor little Max has his Christmas ruined by the arrival of his annoying and vulgar extended family. Max is one of those bright-eyed, pure of heart type kids who still believes in Santa Claus and is subsequently ridiculed for his devotion to ol’ St. Nick by his bullying cousins. In a fit of anger, Max destroys his once cherished letter to Santa and in doing so, accidently summons an evil ancient spirit who tortures and punishes the wicked on Christmas. Now Max and his family must stand together if they want to survive the holidays, least they fall victim to Krampus and his sadistic yuletide henchmen.
Why it’s metal:
Because Krampus is a giant anthropomorphic goat-man demon, the literal anti-Santa. Rooted in centuries old Alpine folklore, Krampus dates back to pre-Christian pagan times [aka: the good ol’ days] but got Hallmarked by the church into the traditional Christmas season, serving as the bad cop foil to St. Nicolas’ clean singing, treat giving counterpart. Krampus is a flagrant child abuser, flogging naughty children with tree branches and rusty chains that symbolize his unholy pact/servitude with the devil, then he drags them kicking and screaming into the netherworld where they presumably suffer for all eternity. Tell me that’s not metal.
As far as the film Krampus goes, it’s a tongue and cheek B movie more akin to 80’s dark but loveable classics like Gremlins than modern day, angry spirit flicks like Paranormal Activity. In Krampus, director Michael Dougherty, the man who brought us the modern day Halloween cult hit Trick ‘R Treat, pushes the envelope for what a PG-13 movie can get away with. The film isn’t gory per se, but has some twisted visuals [hello gigantic cannibal jack-in-the-box] that border on nightmare fuel. Despite the film’s dark and violent overtones, Krampus is actually pretty hilarious. Lots of great one liners and over the top death sequences that had people in the theater squirming and laughing at the same time. Hail Krampus.
Suggested listening:
Goatwhore – “Perversions of the Ancient Goat”
For obvious reasons.
